Film and TV

When it comes to insuring the film and television industry, premiums that skyrocketed in 2020-21 have settled down, according to John Hamby, senior managing director, national entertainment practice leader, Risk Strategies/Dewitt Stern.

“Rates seem to have flattened for standard productions, but underwriting has become more stringent for audience participation/immersive productions and shows that contain higher-risk activities like strenuous choreography,” according to Risk Strategies’ State of the Insurance Market Report 2024.

Hamby says that halfway through 2024, he’s not seeing rate increases for the most part. “However, I think that’s principally because the rates and premiums pre-covid were so low,” he added. “Unsustainably low.”

In Hamby’s view, today’s rates for TV/film are about where they should be. “And we don’t really foresee increased rates this year or next year, and candidly, maybe not even beyond that,” he added.

Even commercial auto for film and TV has remained flat, he said.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strikes last year led to the stoppage of most film and TV productions, which slowed down insurance buying habits. “It almost felt like a similar impact that Covid had. It was about a 90% shut down of projects,” he said.

While production has begun rolling again, it has been slower the past six months. “I think that the streaming companies are reassessing, ‘Do we really want to produce 200 projects this year? Maybe we’ll do 140,'” Hamby said.

One area that’s delivering ongoing opportunity is unscripted TV, Hamby said. “We see a huge amount of reality TV, what we call unscripted,” he said. “The demand for that kind of content with all the streamers is extremely high.”